Pinterest For Business

Cassandra Hartt is a senior at Dartmouth College from Upstate New York. Her passion has been creative writing from an early age — and now she’s majoring in it! When she’s not writing or in class she can be found cooking with friends, reading, or on Pinterest sharing recipes, writing tips, tattoo designs and more to her 3M+ Pinterest followers!

When did you start using Pinterest and what drew you to making an account?

I started using Pinterest back in the fall of 2011. I was studying abroad in Scotland and it was my first time cooking for myself regularly, so Pinterest was first and foremost a place for me to discover and save recipes. Over time, it also became a site I use to consider different tattoo designs, find DIY projects, and keep track of places I’d like to travel to!

Why do you like Pinterest? What is your favorite board to pin on and why?

There’s so much cool content being created on the Internet. Pinterest is a great way to find and bookmark it. Through Pinterest I’ve discovered brands and blogs that I now follow regularly. Pinterest just has so many unique uses: you could use it for anything from planning a wedding to learning how to start your own business, to deciding which kind of dog you want.

As for my favorite board to pin to, I have a Novel Inspiration board that helps inspire my writing — I like to look at it and add to it when I’m trying to imagine the world of my current work in progress.

You have gained over 3M followers. Amazing! What makes your Pinterest so unique?

I’m as surprised as anyone else to find myself with so many followers! I’ve always thought of Pinterest as a visually appealing way to bookmark things I like, so I suppose that people just enjoy the same things that I do.

I was an avid reader as a kid, so I’ve wanted to write fiction for as long as I can remember. I wrote stories and participated in various writing programs throughout high school, and I did National Novel Writing Month, a challenge to write 50,000 words during the month of November, six years in a row.

Now I’m pursuing an English literature degree with a concentration in creative writing, which is a great combination because it means I get to read and learn from accomplished writers, and I also get to have my work critiqued in a workshop setting.

We love your “Don’t Be A Writer. Be Writing!” board. Has that inspired your work at all?

My Don’t Be a Writer. Be Writing! board is newer than my other boards. I realized just a couple of months ago that although there is a ton of writing advice on the internet, a lot of it is not on Pinterest. Writing is obviously a big part of my life, so it made sense to make a Pinterest board about it. When I’m not sure what to write next, or struggling with a scene, it’s helped me to refer to some of the tips and inspirational quotes on that board.

Your Ink & Inspiration board is really cool! What got you interested in tattoos? Do you have any tattoos yourself?

So besides wanting to find more recipes, the other reason I got started with Pinterest was because I was considering getting my first tattoo and I wanted to explore different designs. I hadn’t realized before that there is such a wide variety of tattoo styles, from small, minimalist designs to full-sleeve works of art. After a ton of research, I did end up getting a tattoo, though it’s not one that I’ve ever seen on Pinterest. I have a light bulb with a cord tattooed on my forearm that I doodled one day during class. To me, it represents creativity and reminds me that I should not stop writing even if it’s difficult or not particularly lucrative.

Any writing projects you’re working on that you’d like to share with us?

They say good writers don’t talk about their writing, they just write! So I’ll just say that I’m almost done with a draft of my first novel. There’s still a lot of revision to do and it’s difficult to fit it in around school work and hanging out with friends, but it will feel good to finish something of this length!

What do you want to do after graduating? What do you hope to do with your creative writing degree?

After graduation, I hope to do something in marketing, social media, or publishing; whatever will allow me to write and be creative but also pay the bills!